Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves-A Love Story
by flarati
Summary: Derpy Hooves, the mailmare of Ponyville and Doctor Whooves, the mysterious Timelord who arrived in the TARDIS and took Derpy on as his assistant. Now Derpy has fallen in love with the Doctor! Find out what happens between this romantic pair! Chapters may not be posted regularly. CHAPTER 2 IS PUBLISHED!
1. Chapter 1: The Doctor

"Derpy, could you get me that purple book over on the coffee table in the living room?" Doctor asked me.

I was sitting at the sofa, reading Princess Twilight and the Meaning of Friendship in the Doctor's TARDIS. Dinky, my daughter, was at daycare, since I couldn't be at our house to take care of her. "Gotcha, Doctor," I said. Grabbing the purple book and bookmarking my own, I took the book over to the Doctor in my teeth.

"Thank you, dear Derpy," he said distractedly as he took it and opened it up on his desk. I blushed, hoping he couldn't see. He called me "dear Derpy"!

Hi my name's Derpy, and the Doctor's assistant. His full name's Doctor Whooves, and he's an earth pony (who temporarily had wings little while back) with a light brown coat and handsome brown mane and tail he keeps in dashing jagged slashes.

His cutie mark is an hourglass, because he's a TIME TRAVELING PONY! I'm his assistant and friend, and I help him out cleaning and cooking and stuff around the TARDIS. He battles cosmic villains and things, but he tries to keep me safe, which is so romantic!

I'm Derpy Hooves. I'm a gray pony with a blonde mane and tail, and my cutie mark is a group of bubbles, which means I'm really bubbly and happy! I'm called Derpy though, because while my left eye does what I tell it to do, while my right eye just wanders, so my eyes are usually looking in different directions, almost walleyed, so my nickname is Derpy! I also love muffins and I'm Ponyville's mailmare when I'm not helping the Doctor out.

And, yes, it's true...I do have maybe a teensy weensy little crush on the Doctor. What? No, it's nothing else! It's not, love, or anything! Hee, hee, hee...

*sigh* Alright. You guessed it. I love the Doctor. Yes, it's really love! I LOVE the Doctor. He's amazing! His beautiful blue eyes, his deep, inquisitive, accented voice, the confused little way he reads things even though he understands perfectly, the way he talks to me like my mom used to...all gentle and loving.

"Derpy, come over here for a moment," Doctor said.

I trotted over to him to look over his shoulder. "What's up, Doctor?"

Suddenly I heard polka music from the streets. I turned to the window in the living room. A pink pony, who I recognized as Pinkie Pie, was playing a one-man band and leading a line of what looked like cute little fireflies with big turquoise eyes towards the Everfree Forest.

"Derpy, are you even listening?" Doctor's voice drew me back to him. "Y-yes, sorry, Doctor," I said.

"See this?" Doctor gestured to a map of Ponyville on a page of the book. I realized the purple book was Doctor's journal! It had his scrawly writing all over it, and the map was drawn by Doctor's detailed hoof.

"I've doodled the TARDIS onto its location on this map of Ponyville," Doctor said, gesturing to it. "And now that I've found out the specific location of where the TARDIS is in Ponyville, I think I've found a way to shorten our walk from the TARDIS to the town by having the TARDIS teleport itself closer to the center of town."

"You have?!" I exclaimed happily. I hated the long walks into town. "Why," I had said before, "can't we just have the TARDIS teleport itself closer to town?"

Doctor had replied: "I can't make the TARDIS just teleport wherever I want it to. And besides, I don't even know where the TARDIS specifically is in Ponyville."

But now he had done it! "Yayy!" I exclaimed, clapping my hooves and hopping about on my two back legs all around Doctor's office. "Hooray! I won't be late to my mailmare duties anymore, and I can go to the bakery more often!"

Doctor smiled. "Yup. That's true," he said. He murmured the line of code a couple times, memorizing it. "I think this is it, Derpy," he said. He galloped off to the TARDIS's command room, leaving his journal open on his desk.

My eyes immediately gravitated towards it. It was a very pretty book, with a quilted purple cloth cover and creamy pages the color and texture of soft goose down, lined immaculately with printed ink lines. It was a journal worthy of a Timelord like Doctor.

Next to it, his pen was disguised to look like a quill, but when you slid the pen out of the hollowed-out feather, it was just a regular black ballpoint pen.

Looking around me to make sure Doctor was still in the command room, I gently flipped to the Doctor's latest entry.

July 14th, late afternoon:

I think I've perfected it! The code to enter into the TARDIS controls to make the TARDIS teleport closer to the center of town, like Derpy wanted before! And what she'll never guess is that it's right in between her parents' muffin bakery and the post office. So she'll be closer to both of them! It's the perfect plan, and a wonderful surprise for her!

Code: 432098092324098098309

TARDIS current cords (see map): x234, y493

TARDIS next cords (see map): x256, y509

I just hope I don't crush Derpy's cottage, because that would be aw-

Suddenly the TARDIS began to shake before I could finish reading, and Doctor shouted from the command room: "Derpy! It's working! I've gotten the TARDIS to teleport into the center of town!"

Then a queer thing happened to me. It was like in a dream where you're walking along and then suddenly the ground drops out from under you and you experience this sort of panging falling sensation in your stomach, except this sensation sort of went forward, in a way. There's no way to describe it.

And then it stopped, and the TARDIS stopped shaking. Silence came from the control room. I flipped the journal back to the way Doctor had left it and trotted over to the control room to see what was up.

Doctor looked up at the wall of computer screens with sheer delight. "Look, Derpy!" he said, pointing a hoof. "We're in Ponyville!"

The screens showed multiple ponies in the Ponyville town square, passing by, chatting happily. Luckily none of them seemed to notice the TARDIS's sudden appearance.

"It worked! Oh, Derpy, it really worked!" Doctor jumped up, and, grabbing my hooves, did a little happy dance with me all around the command room...

~*FANTASY~*

The shimmering lights, my beautiful gown that Rarity had made specially for me, my mane falling down my back in luscious curls, my tail long and luxurious, my hooves encased in crystal slippers.

It was so beautiful, sparkling with the light of a thousand candles. Refined, elegant pony pairs danced around, spinning and moving their hooves in graceful dance patterns.

"My fine Derpy, may I have this dance?" I turned to see...Doctor.

He was in the crispest, most finely made suit that could have come from nowhere but the finest tuxedo shop in Equestria, Saylor Stitch's.

I blushed. "Of course you may, my good sir," I said in a rich, beautiful whinny that could not have been my real voice.

Quite suddenly, polka music began to play. Doctor grabbed me roughly around the waist and we began to do a jumpy little polka, with Doctor spinning me around, just like all the other pony pairs.

We twirled and we stamped to the music and said: "Hooray!" in unison with the other ponies. Suddenly everything went all shifty and shimmery...

"Derpy, my love, I've always wanted to do this, with you, right here, right now," Doctor said, leaning in close and whispering in my ear.

Yes! Yes! Doctor...Doctor was going to kiss me! I closed my eyes, puckered my lips, and waited for a kiss...

That never came. I opened my eyes.

"Derpy? Derpy, are you quite alright?" Doctor said, waving his hoof over my face. I was lying on the ground of the command room.

"Wha happendz?" I asked dizzily. Doctor looked worried.

"Well, I got the TARDIS to teleport closer to Ponyville, then we started dancing. I put on some polka music and suddenly you fell onto the floor, unconscious." Doctor looked thoughtful. "Maybe joy really can inspire unconsciousness," he said. He dashed off to his study. "I'm going to look in on that right now!"

"Yeah, that's OK, just leave me on the ground here," I said grumpily. Both because Doctor hadn't stayed behind to help me up and because he hadn't really been about to kiss me.

I was not wearing a long, beautiful gown from Rarity's, and I was not wearing slippers of glass. Doctor had not been wearing a fine tuxedo from Saylor Stitch's. And we were not at the palace, surrounded by sophisticated ponies dancing all around us.

I sighed. When, I thought, when will I ever be brave enough to tell the Doctor I love him?


	2. Chapter 2: Flashbacks

"Uh, Derpy?" Rainbow Dash trotted out of her house to look at the mail. "Derpy, this isn't my mail. This is Cloudkicker's stuff," she said.

I jolted out of a reverie. I had been thinking about-you guessed it- the Doctor again . "Oops, sorry Rainbow Dash," I said, taking her mail away again. I dug around in my mailbag. "This stuff is yours, correctamundo?" I asked, pulling a couple letters and a Wonderbolts Academy brochure out.

"Yup! Those are mine," Rainbow Dash happily, opening up one of the letters and scanning it quickly. Then she examined the brochure. "About time they updated it. That wasn't Spitfire's most flattering picture," she muttered to herself. Tucking everything under her wing, she clopped off back to her cloud home.

Humming cheerfully, I flapped off towards the real Cloudkicker's home. "A true, true friend helps a friend in need," I muttered as I checked that I had all of Cloudkicker's mail and that they were hers. It was hard, as my right eye was refusing to cooperate again, but Leftie managed to prove all the mail was Cloudkicker's. I stuffed her mail into her mailbox and flew off to my last stop up here in the clouds, Wonderbolts Academy.

"Heyy! Derpy! What's up?" Spitfire said cheerfully as I trotted in with mail in my muzzle. Ha! Mail in the muzzle. Mail-in-the- muzzle. Mailinthemuzzle.

"Hmmmpf," I replied as I dumped Wonderbolts Academy's mail on Spitfire's desk. "How's the mailmare business going?" Spitfire asked.

"Okay," I replied. "I did try to give Rainbow Dash Cloudkicker's mail just now," I said, embarrassed. Spitfire laughed. "You just made my day, Derps," she said, clapping me on the back. I winced. "I've got to go, deliveries, you know," I said, ignoring Spitfire's roar of laughter at that.

"Alright then, see ya, Derps!" she shouted as I exited her office.

"Hey, look! It's the mailmare!" cried a pony practicing on the track outside with her group. "That means there's mail for us in Spitfire's office!" The group cheered loudly until Spitfire came out. "Back to practice! You can pick up your mail during mess hall!" she roared. "You should be in the air by now!"

Smiling to myself, I took off and headed in the direction of the last recipient on my list: Fluttershy, in her cottage of animals.

Fluttershy was outside, trying to get Angel Bunny to eat another carrot. "Angel, you're so skinny," she pleaded. "Please take just another bite." Angel Bunny refused and I laughed, startling both Angel and Fluttershy.

Angel Bunny made for the nearest bush while Fluttershy cringed, looking around her with whirls of her head. I tried to approach her slowly, but I still managed to startle her slightly. "Sorry, Fluttershy," I said. "I didn't mean to scare you or Angel."

Fluttershy regained her composure and gave a gentle smile. "That's okay," she said. I dug in my now-empty mailbag for Fluttershy's mail. "Here it ih," I said as best as I could through a mouthful of mail. Fluttershy took it. "Your shipment of...Assorted Animal Food, of one 350 PP unit, will arrive tomorrow, the UPPS guys will bring it," I said.

PP's are Pony Pounds, the UPPS is the United Pony Parcel Service, and my company, the PPS, is the Pony Postal Service, in case you didn't know. I don't know why you wouldn't know what PP means, but plenty of ponies don't know what UPPS or the PPS stands for.

Anyway, after dropping off Fluttershy's mail, I went back to the post office, put away my hat and bag, said goodbye to the mailmare and mail stallions at the front desk and went back to my house.

No, I don't live in the TARDIS. I have a bedroom, the companions' bedroom, but I really have a nice little cottage near the family bakery, and now, the TARDIS. Luckily the Doctor did not crush my house. I have lots of things in there that are precious to me, plus Dinky would be devastated if her stuff got all crushed and ruined. Doctor knows how important Dinky is to me. I love Dinky, and I once loved her father. Her father...

His name was Cottonswirl, and Dinky looks exactly like him. He was a light purple stallion with a lemony yellow mane and tail and eyes. He was a pegasus, and I met him in Junior Flight Camp. We were very good friends, and he was the only reason I got my mailmare job. Otherwise, who knows what I'd be doing for a living.

I remember it like it was yesterday...

_"Cottonswirl, do you think this is safe?" I asked him. "Aw, don't worry," he assured me. "The post office always needs help, and this is a quick way to make a good amount of bits."_

_"If you say so," I said nervously. I had only been on the ground a couple times before, and it seemed like such a different place from Cloudsdale, where earth ponies and unicorns alike roamed freely. I had once wondered why they hadn't been spotted in Cloudsdale._

_"Because they can't walk on clouds, and besides, how would they get up here?" my father had said one night when I'd asked him. "It would take powerful unicorn magic to allow normal earth ponies or unicorns to walk on clouds."_

_And now Cottonswirl and I were going to the post office on the ground to see if we could pick up local deliveryboy jobs._

_"And deliverygirl," I had corrected him. "Whatever," Cottonswirl had said._

_We arrived at the post office safely and neatly. Cottonswirl and I came up to the counter._

_"How can I help you two today?" asked the mare at the counter. "We want to become local delivery helpers," Cottonswirl said boldly as I hung around in the back, letting him do the talking._

_"Oh? We are looking for some more delivery ponies, several of them just quit," the desk pony murmured. "I will have to give you some basic training, though, and you'll have the job."_

Cottonswirl and I both got the job, and Cottonswirl and I we started becoming more than friends. We thought we were going to get married, get settled down and have children, but suddenly Cottonswirl got it in his head to become an adventurer. I remember that discussion perfectly.

_"Cottonswirl, you don't have to do this," I begged. "Please, don't leave me! Who knows what will happen to you out there in the wilder regions of Equestria?"_

_"Derpy, you know we've already discussed this," replied Cottonswirl, throwing things into his suitcase. "I have to do this. It's part of who I am."_

_"Aren't I also part of who you are? You said so yourself, once upon a time!" I retaliated. I was on the brink of tears. "You can't do this! Don't leave! What if you never come back again?"_

_Cottonswirl turned around and put my face in his front hooves. "Derpy, my love, I'll always come back to you," he said reassuringly. "Don't worry. I will come back and bring you along with me. But you're pregnant, and I'll be going to some pretty rough places," he said, patting my swollen belly._

_"Then stay!" I said. "Stay with me and spend time with your foal! Then you can go," I said, secretly thinking that I would never, ever do that._

_Cottonswirl pulled away. "You know I can't do this. And besides, I promise I'll be back by the time our child is born. Okay?" he said._

_I sniffled. "I still don't want you to go," I said._

_"Derpy, I'll never be able to settle down with you until I get this adventuring stuff out of my system," Cottonswirl said. "I'll always be looking around, waiting for something exciting to happen. And I'll never have something like that, because I couldn't leave you alone once our foal's born."_

_Plan B, then. Guilt-tripping, activate. "I'll miss you so much," I protested. "I might not be well enough, and our foal might not be born right."_

_Cottonswirl chuckled. "I know that won't happen, my Derpy," he said. He checked his new watch, the one that I didn't know that he had gotten. I didn't get him it, and he hadn't told me that he'd bought it._

_"The train's leaving in ten minutes, love," he said. He kissed me._

_"Wait!" I tried to grab onto him, to make him stay longer, but I stumbled._

_"Goodbye, Derpy!" My future husband turned out the door and was gone._

I curse my clumsiness everyday from that day. If I hadn't stumbled, I could have grabbed onto him, made him stay. He promised he would come back and marry me, in time for the foal to be born.

But he didn't. Cottonswirl never came back, and Dinky was born, the exactly copy of him, except a filly and a unicorn. I had a filly to take care of, and I wasn't even married. Dinky didn't know who her father was, and had never met him.

And I lost the love of my life.

But I've moved on now, and I found the Doctor. Now I don't need my past. When I'm with the Doctor, I feel like everything's going to fine.

But Dinky still has nightmares, nightmares that I can't stop. She doesn't always tell me what happens in them, but she tells me sometimes. That she doesn't have her horn anymore, her tail gets cut off, she falls into a vat of boiling green goo.

But once, she told me about a nightmare she had. That she was an orphan, because I had died and she didn't know anything about her father. And I know those are the ones that she has the most. And I can't protect her from these, because Cottonswirl is gone forever.


End file.
